Islam and Propaganda

In the course of propagating Islam, many Islamic da‘wah (preaching) websites, blogs and forums resort to distorting facts, and even out-right lies. This page contains summaries of articles discussing and refuting Islamic propaganda.

This is a core topic which contains summariesof WikiIslam articles related to it

Adherents of Islam

Lying is Not Permitted to Further the Cause of Islam

Taqiyya does not mean "lying" in Islam. It only refers to a specific doctrine, a predominantly Shi'ite one, used by them in order to save their own lives or avoid some other form of severe persecution. Critics of Islam are often ridiculed because they tend to conflate this doctrine with that of lying in general, leading to the mislabelling of all forms of religious lying as an example of "taqiyya". However, taqiyya forms only a single aspect of lying within Islam, not the entirety of the subject itself. Lying to non-Muslims, for reasons other than the fear of persecution, is supported by Islamic texts. This page simply quotes those relevant passages. All quotations are taken from authoritative Sunni (i.e. orthodox Islamic) sources, none are taken from Shi'ite sources.

Imam Abu Hammid Ghazali says: "Speaking is a means to achieve objectives. If a praiseworthy aim is attainable through both telling the truth and lying, it is unlawful to accomplish through lying because there is no need for it. When it is possible to achieve such an aim by lying but not by telling the truth, it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is permissible (N:i.e. when the purpose of lying is to circumvent someone who is preventing one from doing something permissible), and obligatory to lie if the goal is obligatory... it is religiously precautionary in all cases to employ words that give a misleading impression..."

Many individuals claim that extremists within Islam are only a tiny minority, a fringe group among Muslims who have a loud voice, "they do not represent mainstream Islam". However, countless studies and polls have been conducted in recent times which suggest such claims are inaccurate.

Although in some cases the extremists may be a minority, that minority is rarely tiny (e.g. a 2008 survey conducted by the Gallup polling agency found that almost 4 out of 10 Muslims worldwide think 9/11 was totally, partially or somewhat justified). In other cases, the extremists form a solid majority (e.g. a December 2010 Pew poll found that 76 percent of Pakistanis agree apostates are to be killed. This would mean the number of extremists in Pakistan alone form about 8 percent of the world's entire 1.5 billion Muslim population).

Islam is the Fastest Growing Religion

Many have claimed that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world. As proof, they usually present us with unverifiable claims and baseless media quotes. Apparently ABC News had claimed "Already more than a billion-people strong, Islam is the world's fastest-growing religion", a quote which cannot be traced to its source. Also CNN World News stated "Fast-growing Islam winning converts in Western world", a statement which they fail to back up with any evidence. However, if we examine the actual data available for Islam, it reveals that Islam is neither the fastest growing religion by number of adherents or the fastest growing religion by percentage-increase.

The growing number of Muslims in the world is due primarily to the higher than average birth-rates, and consequent population growths of Muslim countries and communities. And their growing presence in non-Muslim societies such as Europe and the Americas is overwhelmingly due to immigration. Furthermore, converts to Islam are vastly outnumbered by those who choose to leave the religion and embrace another faith or worldview. And the majority of converts that Islam does manage to attract, decide to leave within the first few years of practicing it.

People Converting to Islam

Apologists often advertise news of non-Muslims converting to Islam, but they neglect to inform you of the other side, where Muslims are also leaving Islam. There are more Muslims leaving Islam today than there are new converts joining it. According to research carried out by the respected Pakistani-born American Muslim Dr. Ilyas Ba-Yunus (1932 - 2007),[1] 75% of new Muslim converts in the US leave Islam within a few years.[2] The sheer volume of recent apostates is unprecedented in the history of Islam, and unlike other faiths, people who apostatize from Islam risk their lives in doing so. Here at WikiIslam, we document this news and host hundreds of written testimonies.

Muslims are the Most Charitable People-Group

Islamic terms are often not completely analogous to the commonly-accepted/non-Islamic concepts they are mostly associated with. In Islamic terms, zakat is both a tax and a charity, and no problem is seen with discussing it as both, along with actual voluntary Islamic charity (i.e. the sadaqah). But by its commonly-accepted definition, it is strictly a tax.

When considering compulsory taxation in most non-Islamic nations, it is charged on certain goods and is taken by the state from individual yearly earnings and then in part distributed to those within the state who are unemployed, or other public services, such as the state's military services. In essence, this tax functions exactly as zakat does, however those who pay taxes do not consider it charity, nor are they viewed as charitable. They are simply paying what they have to pay in order to live in the society they live in.

Thus a proper understanding of zakat makes it, in all but name, a tax, not a form of charity. And although there no longer remains a global caliphate to enforce this tax on every Muslim, it does not change what it is, for what purpose it was created, or how it should be viewed, inside and outside of Islam.

Celebrities and Notable Figures

Famous Conversions

Apologists sometimes claim various famous persons have converted to Islam. These stories are tenacious. Even after these conversion stories have been shown to be untrue, they continue to circulate the internet and are retold in newspapers and televisions shows throughout the Islamic world. They do this in order to gain converts from more developed nations, and to also boost morale among the ummah (the collective body of Muslim believers), "proving" that Islam is the "truth," and that even rich celebrities can see this. A recent case being the alleged conversion of pop legend Michael Jackson. Something that was born from a dubious tabloid article, it refuses to die even after all those (Muslims) who were supposedly present at his conversion have categorically denied any knowledge of the incident.

Scholars, Priests and Missionaries Becoming Muslims

When a notable Hindu or a Christian priest (like Yusuf Estes) decides to convert, Muslims often view this as something that further validates their beliefs. However, once again, they fail to inform you of the other side. Whilst apostatizing from the Islamic faith is a dangerous thing to do, many outspoken Muslim preachers, mullahs, imams, scholars, missionaries and even terrorists have apostatized and become atheists, Buddhists, Christians, Hindus etc. In doing so, many have taken it upon themselves to oppose the Islamic ideology and have become celebrities in their own right.

Random Quotes from the Noteworthy

"Our culture isn't just different than [the] one that makes death threats to cartoonists, it's better. Because when I make a joke about the Pope, he doesn't send one of the Swiss Guards in their striped pantaloons to stick a pike in my ass. When I make a Jewish joke, Rabbis may kvetch about it, but they don't pull out a scimitar and threaten an adult circumcision... it should in fairness be noted, that in speaking of Muslims, we realize that of course the vast majority are law abiding, loving people, who just want to be left alone to subjugate their women in peace." - Bill Maher

What They Say About Islam

Many apologists like to commit the logical fallacy of appealing to authority by using (very often out-of-context or false) quotes attributed to various noteworthy non-Muslim individuals, in an attempt to propagate their faith. For example, one site asks "Whom do you wish to believe concerning the character of the Prophet Mohammed?",[3] before listing several quotes and blatantly lying[4] about the nature of Michael H. Hart's 1978 list of "most influential persons in history".

Another favorite of theirs is the alleged quote by Thomas Carlyle where he claims, "The lies (Western slander) which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man (Muhammad) are disgraceful to ourselves only". But what they fail to bring to your attention are quotes, once again by Thomas Carlyle, where he states the Qur'an is "the confused ferment of a great rude human soul", and that Muhammad was an "uncultured semi-barbarous Son of Nature," a "wretched Simulacrum, a hungry Impostor without eyes or heart", and "much of the Bedouin still clinging to him".[5]

Muhammad Ranked as the Greatest Man that Ever Lived

In 1978, Jewish American astrophysicist Michael H. Hart (born April 28, 1932) released a book titled "The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History". This book, which has sold over 500,000 copies to date, has been somewhat controversial, not least due to its placing of Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, over Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity.

This has led to the list being used for the purpose of propaganda. Its choice of Muhammad as the most influential person in history has been, and still is being, celebrated on numerous Islamic websites and blogs, used in various videos on user-contributed media sites, and has been cited during the course of countless forum discussions.

When faced with criticism of Muhammad's actions, apologists will often resort to protesting and gloating in equal measures, "How could the greatest man that ever lived be guilty of all those evil things attributed to him? Muhammad (pbuh) is ranked above Jesus (pbuh) and Buddha! He is surely the Messenger of Allah!"

Hopefully any apologist that reads this article will ponder the following; what exactly do they (as followers of Islam) consider so great about a Jewish-American racist “Islamophobe's” opinion that an individual who he refers to as a “conqueror” ranked alongside Adolf Hitler is temporarily the most influential (not 'greatest') person in human history?

Miracles and Prophecies

Islamic Miracles

Apologists throughout the world point to alleged miracles that they claim prove Islam is from Allah. This page lists and analyzes all of their claims. These include Qur'anic miracles; information found in the Qur'an that could not have been known to people at the time it was revealed, and numerical patterns. Pareidolia; which is a type of illusion or mis-perception involving a vague or obscure stimulus being perceived as something clear and distinct. And finally; out-right hoaxes meant to mislead people into believing in Islam.

Islamic Prophecies

There are many websites and resources cropping up claiming that the Qur'an contains many prophecies that have been fulfilled due to the advancement of knowledge of our universe and advances in modern life. However all of the claims examined so far show that, using hindsight, some Muslims are taking one verse, or a partial verse; or even a loose translation of the Qur'an out of context in order to twist the words to find prophetic statements within. This is to say that they may take some of our current knowledge, ie. airplane technology, and then search for a Qur'an verse or a partial verse, and twist it to make it 'fit'. Many of these claims of prophecy are incorrect; dis-proven in fact by their own experts on the Qur'an or the verses themselves, when read in context. This article refutes all these false claims of fulfilled Qur'anic prophecy.

Muhammad in Other Scriptures

Apologists often mention that Muhammad was predicted in other religious scriptures, but what they fail to convey accurately is the nature of many of these references.

In the Bhavishya Purana, one of the eighteen major Hindu Puranas, Muhammad is depicted as a reincarnated demon, Islam as a demonic religion, and its followers as "the corrupters of religion".

In the Haran Gawaitha, a Mandaean text which tells the history of the Mandaeans and their arrival in Iraq as Nasoreans from Jerusalem, Muhammad is referred to as "the Son-of-Slaughter, the Arab", "the most degraded of false prophets", "the Seal of prophets of the Lie", who "converted people to himself by the sword".

And in the Kālachakra Tantra, a ninth century Tibetan Buddhist text, Muhammad is referred to as a demonic incarnation and a "false impostor". Muslims are described as invading "barbarians", bringing with them the barbarian religion ("mleccha-dharma"), a religion of violence ("himsa-dharma") that also advocates savage behavior ("raudra-karman").

Science and the Golden Age

Islamic Science in Wikipedia Articles

At Wikipedia, Islam-related articles are often compromised by pro-Islamic editors. An example of this is a 2010 incident where an editor with over 67,000 edits was caught intentionally inserting false information into articles.

Jagged 85 is the main contributor to the many inaccurate Islam/Science/Golden Age articles which are still being copied and pasted all over the internet by Muslims, and more than 20% of Wikipedia's "Timeline of historic inventions" was provided by him.

With contributions to over 8,100 separate articles, it is unlikely that all of Jagged 85's edits will ever be fixed. And even if they were, these Wikipedia articles have already been reproduced all over the net by other sites which use Wikipedia as a source.

Muslims 'Saved' the Work of Greek Philosophers from Destruction

The Arab transmission of the classics is a common and persistent myth that Arabic commentators such as Avicenna and Averroes 'saved' the work of Aristotle and other Greek philosophers from destruction. According to the myth, these works would otherwise have perished in the long European dark age between fifth and the tenth centuries. Thus the versions of Aristotle used in the West were translations from the Arabic, which came from the South West of Europe in the reconquest of Spain from the Muslims during the twelve and thirteenth centuries[6]. This is incorrect. It was actually the Byzantines in the East who saved the ancient learning of the Greeks in the original language, and the first Latin texts to be used were translation from the Greek, in the 12th century, rather than, in most cases, the Arabic, which were only used in default of these.

It is nevertheless true, and no myth, that the work of the Arabic commentators, particularly Averroes, had a profound influence on the scholastic philosophers of the Latin West in the thirteenth century. Aristotle's Greek is terse and very difficult to understand. The work of the Arabic commentators helped in explaining and clarifying Aristotle's dense and apparently obscure thought. Thus Western intellectual tradition owes a great debt to the Arabic scholars in terms of understanding Aristotle's thought. In terms of the texts, however, these would have survived had the Arabic commentators never existed.

Dr K. Ajram's "Setting the Record Straight"

This is a refutation of Dr K. Ajram's “Setting the Record Straight: The Miracle of Islamic Science.” The purpose of this analysis is to put the achievements of Golden Age Muslim scientists in the proper perspective; neither denigrating their achievements nor inflating them.

All scientific and technological progress is accomplished in progression; Muslim achievements are but links in the chain. Few of the great Muslim scientific achievements stood alone, but were derived by Muslim scientists standing on the shoulders of those who came before them.

This analysis also highlights the biggest flaw of the Islamic Golden Age. There were few ‘follow-up’ breakthroughs on the backs of the works of the great Muslim scientists. In effect, the Ummah allowed or encouraged these works to wither on the vine or die stillborn, even before the rise of mysticism at the expense of rational thinking, an event often attributed to al-Ghazzali around the turn of the 12th century.

Therefore, Islam is not the cause of scientific progress during the Golden Age. Many people would say that the Golden Age scientific progress was made in spite of Islam, not because of it.

A prime example is the great philosopher-physician Ibn Sina (Avicenna) who's work is constantly referenced by Dr K. Ajram. It is true that Avicenna was one of the most influential medieval philosophers, but he was also one of the most frequently attacked by Muslims. Today, the majority of Muslims would consider Ibn Sina, and many of the other great 'Islamic' scientists, as heretical apostates for their beliefs.

Paul Vallely's "How Islamic Inventors Changed the World"

These past few years have seen many inventions claimed and attributed to Islamic inventors, which in fact either existed in pre-Islamic eras, were invented by other cultures, or both. However, this detail has not halted Muslim and non-Muslim apologists from perpetuating these false claims. Such claims have even been forced upon the general public in a nationwide tour which opened with an exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester and the University of Manchester, England.

To celebrate this series of events, an article titled “How Islamic inventors changed the world” was written by Paul Vallely and published in The Independent. This inaccurate piece of writing has received much praise from Muslims and is still being widely circulated on Islamic websites, forums and blogs. This article lists and examines all twenty of these “Islamic inventions that changed the world”, and in doing so, it reveals their actual inventors and the true role of Islam/Muslims, if any, behind the inventions.

In short, we find that Paul Vallely's article is fundamentally misleading. It omits, distorts, and makes blunders concerning the most basic of historical facts to give the reader a false impression. It leaves you wondering what could have possibly motivated him into writing such a deceptive piece of journalism? This exhibition claimed to have shown 1001 Islamic inventions. If the best twenty are proven false, what of the other 981?

Genuine Islamic Inventions, Innovations, Records and Firsts

Many articles (for example, "How Islamic Inventors Changed The World" and "Setting the Record Straight: The Miracle of Islamic Science") have made provably false claims, attributing various inventions, innovations and discoveries made by others to Islam and its followers. This article lists only genuine Islamic/Muslim inventions, innovations, records and firsts. Examples include:

The yellow badge that was to be eventually used by the Nazis against the Jews, was invented by a Muslim caliph in Baghdad in the 9th century as a variant of the zunnār belt. This then spread to the western world in medieval times.[7]

According to Dr. K. Ajram, the author of "Miracle of Islamic Science", Muslim scholars invented racial-typing centuries before the German Johann Friedrich Blumenbach "divided mankind into white, yellow, brown, black and red peoples".[8]

The world's first PC virus, Brain.a, was created in September, 1986, by two brothers from Lahore, Pakistan, Amjad Farooq Alvi and Basit Farooq Alvi. They included their names, phone number and address in the code.[9][10]

Scientists find Miracles in the Qur'an

Bucailleism is the belief that "the Qur'an prophesied the Big Bang theory, space travel and other contemporary scientific breakthroughs," and that "there are more than 1200 verses (Ayat) which can be interpreted in the light of modern science." It has been called "a fast-growing branch of Islamic fundamentalism."

Named after the French surgeon Maurice Bucaille, its proponents believe that "one of the main convincing evidences" that lead many to convert to Islam "is the large number of scientific facts in the Quran."

The doctrine is "widely taught" in Islamic secondary schools, promoted on at least one popular weekly television program in the Arab world and is advanced by "a well-funded campaign" led by the Commission on Scientific Signs in the Quran and Sunnah, based in Saudi Arabia and founded by Sheikh Abdul Majeed Zindani, a leading militant Islamist and "Specially Designated Global Terrorist".

Lies and Misconceptions

Misinterpreted Verses

Many apologists use mis-interpreted and/or misleading paraphrased Qur'anic verses to propagate Islam. Below is one example.

“If anyone slays a person, it would be as if he slew the whole people: and if any one saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of the whole people.”[11]

Qur'an

On that account: We ordained for the Children of Israel that if anyone slew a person - unless it be in retaliation for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he slew all mankind: and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all humanity.

Mistranslated Verses

In Al-Hijr (15:9) Allah declared that the Qur'an is his revelation and he promised to preserve it and protect it from corruption. In An-Nahl (16:103), Al-Dokhan (44:58) and Al-Qamar (54:22, 32, 40), it is emphasized that the Qur'an was revealed in straight forward, easy to understand, and pure Arabic. It would seem, this promise of preservation does not extend to translations, as most prominent and officially recognized interpreters like Yusuf Ali, Dr. Rashad Khalifa and Muhammad Asad have not honored the integrity of translation and were involved in deception in interpreting the Qur'an. The reasons were not due to the difficulty of the verses themselves or the so-called "complexity" of the Arabic language, but due to the embarrassment to tell the truth to non-Arabic readers, especially those who already believe in the validity of Islam.

These pages discuss a few of the more popular ones in detail, and provides you with the correct translations.

Weak and Fabricated Hadith

A hadith can either be Maudu (fabricated), Da`if (weak), Hasan (good), or Sahih (authentic). Generally in Islam, only the authentic (sahih) and good (hasan) hadiths are used in deriving the rules. The weak (da`if) hadiths have no value for the purpose of formulating shari'ah, and the fabricated (Maudu) narrations are not even considered to be hadith at all. However, some apologists have started to reject sahih (authentic) hadith, in favor of maudu (fabricated) or da`if (weak) ones. Some of these hadith are obvious fabrications which do not have any scriptural sources.

A prime example of this is Muhammad's "Farewell Sermon". The lines, "an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over black nor a black has any superiority over white" is often quoted in an attempt to deny racism exists within Islam. However this is a fraudulent sermon. S.F.H. Faizi, an Indian, later Pakistani, Islamist (the author of the 1991 book which mentions this sermon) gets us as close to a source as he could when he describes in the introduction how he translated and published a collection of obscure writings into English. In summation, Faizi “derived” this version of the sermon from various unnamed books not accepted by the ulema (scholarly Muslim clerics). He does not know the original sources, but welcomes readers to help in his search.

References which are often cited as sources for this fraudulent sermon, once checked, are either misrepresented (i.e. they have nothing to say on the sermon)[12] or in fact refer to the sermon that most fits al-Tabari's rendition;[13] a sermon in which Muhammad compares women to domestic animals and orders husbands to beat heir wives.

Islam means 'Peace' and Allah means 'God'

Many people have wrongly attempted to equate the word Islam with 'peace' by showing that Islam, meaning 'submission', shares a root word with Salaam, meaning 'peace'. But if such relationships between the meanings of Arabic words can be created then that would imply that there is a relationship between one of the derivations of the infinitive Salama, meaning the stinging of the snake or tanning the leather, and Salam, meaning peace; a relationship which obviously does not exist.

Similarly, many apologists claim the word Allah is simply the Arabic translation of the word 'God'. This is not true. 'God' in Arabic is translated 'ilah,' not 'Allah.' Allah is not the generic word for 'God' in Arabic, but the name of Islam's deity. Language is always evolving, so the actual definition of a word and its popular usage can, and very often does, differ. For example, 'gay' still means 'happy' but through its use in western pop-culture, it can also mean 'homosexual'. This is also the case for the word "Allah" in predominantly Muslim cultures and societies. It is used interchangeably with 'God', as most people are Muslims; to them Allah is God, thus to make a distinction would be redundant.

Islamophobia: Hate Crimes Against Muslims

According to FBI hate-crime statistics, hate crimes directed against Muslims "remain relatively rare" in the United states,[14] with gays, lesbians and Caucasians more frequently a target than the followers of Islam. Jewish victims of hate crimes also outnumber Muslim victims by a ratio of almost 9 to 1, and anti-Muslim incidents only account for a tiny 1.3% of all hate crimes. Even anti-Christian (Catholic/Protestant) incidents outnumber those perpetrated against Muslims in America. Some of the cases listed in this article also put into doubt the truth behind all 105 reported incidents.

Additionally, a July 2011 Pew Global Attitudes survey found that a "greater percentage of Western publics now see relations between themselves and Muslims as generally good" whilst, "as in the past, Muslims express more unfavorable opinions about Christians than Americans or Europeans express about Muslims."[15] Such findings lead many to ask, who are the ones suffering from a "phobia"? This is a very important question. On an international scale, it is the Christians who are the world's most persecuted religious group, and this persecution is mainly from Muslims.[16] Likewise, there are 7 countries in the world where the state can execute you for being atheist. Every single one is officially Islamic.[17][18]

Misconceptions and Myths about Jihad

There has been much confusion spread in regards to the nature of Jihad in Islam. This article looks at and corrects the most common misconceptions spread by Muslims. Answering questions such as; is jihad only defensive? Is the best jihad the inner struggle? Can you rape and kill non-combatants, women, and children? And, are suicide bombings allowed?

The 'Inspired by Muhammad' Ad Campaign

Inspired by Muhammad, also known as the Inspired by Mohammad campaign, is an advertising campaign to be launched in the UK to try and disassociate Islam from Terrorism. The official website is found at inspiredbymuhammad.com.

This campaign was launched following a recent poll in the UK which revealed that the average person on the street does not think very highly of Islam. Its goal is to improve this negative image, by educating the public on the "true Islam of mainstream Muslims." Some of the results of the YouGov poll[19][20] were as follows:

58% associate Islam with extremism and terrorism.

69% believe it encouraged the repression of women.

4 out of 10 think Muslims have not had a positive impact on British society.

Only 13% associate Islam with peace and 6% associate it with justice.

The campaign makes many claims, such as "I believe in Social Justice, so did Mohammad", and "I believe in protecting the Environment, so did Mohammad". This article studies whether these claims are really true or not by citing authentic hadiths and Qur'anic verses.

The Muhammad Cartoon Hoax

The Jyllands-Posten Muhammad Cartoons Controversy, which resulted in more than 200 deaths and hundreds of injuries since their initial publication in September 2005,[21] is one of the most well-known examples of Muslim intolerance. However, this article discusses the lesser-known Muhammad Cartoon Hoax and its role in making the cartoons a world-wide issue.

Miscellaneous

"Moderate Islam" Exists in Indonesia, Malaysia and Turkey

It is often claimed that Indonesia, Malaysia and Turkey are great examples of "moderate" Islamic nations. We are told the Muslim tolerance of others in these countries is proof that the Islamic faith itself is not to blame for the general violence and intolerance found within the Muslim world. However, this is false.

These countries may be slightly less violent and intolerant than, for example, Saudi Arabia or Iran, but this certainly does not make them tolerant or "progressive" by any acceptable standards. Our persecution articles show that the same intolerance shown towards homosexuals, former Muslims, non-Muslims, and women who "dishonor" men in "fundamentalist" Islamic states, exist in every nation with a sizable Muslim population.

The Pact of Umar

Much has been said of the Pact of Umar,[22] and much of it distinctly positive. Its non-Muslim admirers gleefully compare its contents to the treatment of religious minorities in Medieval Europe, while ignoring its influence and conformity with Islamic scriptural sources which still govern the treatment of minorities in the Muslim world today. Some non-Muslim scholars of early Islam doubt the pact's authenticity, highlighting the fact that the Islamic traditions surrounding the writing of the pact are a few hundred years removed from the actual events described, and that no contemporary sources refers to it at all. Sophronius' (560 - 638 AD) authentic extant writings also refer to the Muslim conquerors in a very negative way, putting further doubts on the Muslim recollections of events.[23] Nevertheless, this article will accept its authenticity and analyse the rights and limitations placed on the Syrians, to see just how free non-Muslims really were under the Rightly-guided Caliph.

Sufism is a Peaceful Form of Islam

Do not let Sufism's asceticism, mysticism, and syncretism, cause you to be mesmerized into believing that this is a benign sect of non-violence. People seem transfixed with these exotic descriptions and suddenly become warm, nostalgic, and develop a motherly protective wing over this romantic "aspect" of Islam, and are easily misled by Sufi dissimulations. In all probability, Sufism evolved through the fusion of early religions such as Zoroastrianism, Neoplatonism, Hinduism, even Christianity and other diverse traditions, and on top of these fusion of ideas, Islam was superimposed. Thus there are a lot of ritualism in Sufism that belongs to other traditions. But do not let that mislead you. In actuality, the Muslim Brotherhood evolved out of Sufism in the 20th century.

Essays

Tactics Used by Muslim Spokespersons and Debaters

Muslim spokespersons employ a peculiar style of deceptive propaganda that so far has caught western media off-guard. It takes advantage of a common assumption among those who have only been exposed to other religions – the assumption that the statements of religious leaders can be taken at face value because religious leaders want people to understand their religion. It takes advantage of non-Muslim ignorance of Islam while at the same time seeking to maintain that ignorance. It takes advantage of people's tendency to see Islam as a religion in the traditional sense, rather than as a combination of a militant political ideology and a religion. Thus a Muslim religious leader should not be seen in the same way as most religious leaders. He should be viewed as a combination of politician and religious leader. When addressing a non-Muslim audience, he should not be viewed as a typical missionary, but as an astute politician addressing a hostile audience who won't like all of his policies - he will tell you what you want to hear.

Muslims use a number of strategies to either conceal the more barbaric aspects of their religion or to deceive people about Islamic doctrine. The initial deception is semantic. Literally, they say one thing and mean another, the opposite of calling a spade a spade. This typically involves using a dual meaning that is generally only understood by Muslims, or using Arabic terms. The initial deception is followed up with a number of rhetorical techniques that create a barrier to effective communication. These are essentially a form of diversion. While some of these tricks are familiar to a western audience, some are largely unfamiliar and play on Islamic concepts with which the west is unfamiliar.

Factual Persuasion: Changing the Minds of Islam's Supporters

"When you realize the true nature of Islam, you may want to persuade others. Then you discover that they have their minds filled with the “establishment” version of Islam and give you their justifications that support it.

This book is written for those who want to be effective in persuading others about the true nature of Islam. You learn the powerful method of fact-based reasoning. Since 9/11 these methods have been used to change the minds of supporters of Islam from all political backgrounds. Anyone, whether they are liberals, progressives, leftists or conservatives, can all be persuaded to see the truth in light of the facts about Islam.

Since the methods used in this book are based on the sacred source texts of Islam, those who have read the Trilogy of Koran, Sira and Hadith will obtain the full benefit. Others can learn from the examples, but the more facts you have, the better your results."

Answers to Objections When Discussing Islam

This series can be viewed as sales training. When you get a job as a salesperson, the trainer will usually teach you about the most common objections customers have, and hopefully will teach you how to handle them. Then when a potential customer gives you one of those objections, you won't be thrown off; you'll have a competent and well-thought-out answer — an answer that will satisfy the person making it. But maybe even more important, you'll give an answer that will satisfy the person your customer will talk to later. In fact, the objection may only be what your customer thinks others will ask later about his purchase.

People often make a response that they think other people might make. This is true in sales, and it's true when you're talking about Islam's relentless encroachment. If your listener accepts what you're saying about Islam, and then they go share what they've learned with a friend of theirs, what objection might that friend come up with? Your listener will probably wonder about that, and might bring up that objection to see if you have a good answer for it — a persuasive answer, a satisfying answer, an answer that would even convince their skeptical friend. This series aims to give you suggestions about how to effectively respond to these objections you are likely to get when talking about the terrifying brilliance of Islam to someone who knows little about it.

See Also

Articles

Refutations- A hub page that leads to other articles related to specific pro-Islamic publications

Golden Age- A hub page that leads to other articles related to the Golden Age

↑The site claims Hart's book is a rating of "men who contributed towards the benefit and upliftment of mankind". This is untrue. Hart's list is purely based on his opinion of who has had the most influence and does not comment on whether it was positive or negative. For more details click here.

↑The myth persists even on 'scholarly' websites. See e.g. here. "It was only through the transfer of Greek knowledge (including Aristotle's philosophy, Ptolemy's geography, Hippocrates' medicine) by Islam Spain that this information ever got to Western Europe." [Our emphasis]

↑For example; this site lists al-Tirmidhi as one of the sources. However in Tirmidhi we find the farewell command to beat women, and that they are "like prisoners" in the hands of men. For further details, see: The Farewell Sermon/ Related Text